Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 10
1st Report - England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation
Published 3 Apr 2025
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Children in Temporary Accommodation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government must improve the quality of data on local authorities’ use of out-of-area placements. It should require all local authorities to report to the Department quarterly on instances of out-of-area placements as part of their H-CLIC data report, including the distance of placements, why out-of-area placements were used, and the type of accommodation used for households placed out-of-area. The Department should consider ways of making H-CLIC data more publicly accessible, such as through an 45 online homelessness data dashboard, to support local authorities to better understand homelessness pressures in their area, and to improve public awareness. (Recommendation, Paragraph 61)
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 1st Report - England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation (HC 338), 3 April 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 June 2025 (deadline 3 June 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the inquiry and says it is keen to work with the Committee on its recommendations as it develops the homelessness strategy, agreeing with some points and disagreeing with others.
- It does not agree that councils should never place families in accommodation with facilities shared with single adults, saying well managed placements can be appropriate in some instances, though it agrees this "should be rare".
- It states that it wants to "eliminate the use of B&Bs for families other than in genuine emergencies" and is working with 20 local authorities through the £8 million Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots.
- On temporary accommodation standards, it intends the Decent Homes Standard to apply, "subject to consultation on the detail", and plans to consult on how best to apply Awaab's Law to accommodation occupied under licence.
- It commits to publishing the homelessness strategy "later this year" rather than by July 2025, and says detailed minutes of ministerial meetings "are not normally disclosed".